


Good Spouses: Beth and Fritz

by puff22_2001



Category: Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Angst, But I love Fritz, F/M, Family, Female Friendship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jo should have remained a literary spinster, Male-Female Friendship, Second Chances, thus this story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 01:52:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14250528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puff22_2001/pseuds/puff22_2001
Summary: When Beth mends, Fritz must put aside his feelings for Jo. But his friendship with her leads to happiness, still.





	Good Spouses: Beth and Fritz

When Fritz saw the poem in the daily newspaper, he knew that his foolish hope must die. Too happy was Jo in her short little work, too clearly devoted to the little sister who, against all odds, begun to mend again. His tender thoughts still lingered, even as he sighed into his books and tried to forget.

  
And yet, the professor went when Jo wrote. If he could not be her husband, he would always be her friend. So he packed his meager things and appeared just as the wandering newlyweds Amy and Laurie returned.

  
It was then that he met Beth.

“Hello, Professor Bhaer.” Beth said, her eternal shyness beaten by gratitude to the kind friend who helped her beloved Jo.

  
“Hello, Little Sister.” Fritz said, just as gently, while the family gamboled about them. Beth still bore the look of an invalid, and would for life, but a pale blush colored her thin cheeks and her grip was strong when she shook Fritz’s hand.

  
“Isn’t he spandy nice, Beth? Now two of my dearest friends can make mischief together, since Laurie is spoilt with marriage.” Jo laughed even as the married man threw an arm about her shoulder. The family continued to celebrate but Beth soon retired to her corner of the couch to watch the fun in peace. Fritz followed, feeling a tender sort of affection for this quiet little woman with the serenest smile.

  
“Tell me about your nephews.” Beth said as Fritz took the chair beside her and unconsciously attended to her simple needs as he had for his sister Mina before her.

  
“Ach, the little scamps!” Fritz began as he took up the warm quilt to lay it upon her knees. As he talked Beth grew less shy, and shared her similar stories of parties and plays with her own little charges. Soon the two were chatting as if old friends, both won by love.

  
Their talks became regular events over the weeks to follow. Fritz had planned to only stay for a day or two before he went west to teach. Still, he could not find it in him to leave the warm house and the kindly people inside just yet. Everyone held a charm for the lonely man, down to the little children who rooted in his pockets.

  
But it was Beth who drew him the most. As he and Jo became as siblings, her unconscious of his lost love and he determined to keep things that way, Beth saw what could have been and was even more kind in her words and deeds. Jo had never meant to marry, to be sure; and Beth knew that, with parents and sister to care for, Jo had no room in her heart for romance. But Beth saw what others did not.

  
Fritz was as warm as ever, but his talks with Jo had a quality of melancholy. He looked at the many happy couples about him and sighed when he thought no one noticed, though Beth’s sharp little eyes always did. She herself knew wistful dreams and saw how he bore his loss with manly strength. Beth admired him for it, among so many other virtues.

  
Soon admiration gave way to great affection. No one could help loving Fritz, though he was rough in his clothes and simple in his manner. But the Marchs were simple people, too, and so loved him all the more for his thick accent and unruly hair. Beth saw how everyone cared for him and smiled, wishing her dear friend could stay always to be petted, never knowing that he desired the same.

  
It was a few weeks after his first visit that Demi asked a question that enlightened her.

  
“Do great boys like great girls, too, 'Fessor?” The boy had been speaking on his first love, Little Mary, and saw the looks that passed between two of his audience. Beth startled and dropped her ball of yarn. Fritz bent to pick it up and to hide his red face.

  
“Yes, I suppose they do, liebling.” Fritz replied when he resurfaced, not much paler than before. Mister March and Jo looked between the two and then at each other, a shared joyful pain in their eyes. Beth, unable to leave the couch without upsetting the cat, took the yarn with a murmured thanks and bent to her work with the highest color in her cheeks in months.

  
Jo saw the blush and guessed its meaning (rightly, this time around), and felt her heart squeezed. But personal pain was nothing compared to the loving scheming Jo took to too strongly. It had not been Laurie in Beth’s heart when she was ill and thought dying; but it might be Fritz now that she was well.

  
So Jo meant to corner her friends and have it all out, as she would say as a girl. Her friends, to the writer’s consternation, were more accidentally cunning than Jo ever guessed, however. Thus her plans were spoilt, though the result was worth the loss of her fun.

  
Her family begged Beth not to go out in any but the best weather and the woman obliged, though she missed her walks in the rain. So it was on brisk, sunny day in December that she met Fritz on her way to market for some little trifles.

  
“Why, Miss March! What a kind surprise God gives to me.” Fritz said warmly as he offered his arm. Beth took it with a gentle laugh, relieved to see her friend as he had been missing for three whole days. The family had asked about town, and Beth had unconsciously roamed to find him, if she could.

  
“And what are you about today, Professor?” Beth asked as they wandered slowly about the shops and stalls, stopping whenever they fancied.

  
“Ach, I need gifts for my kind hosts! The little children, especially–that Demi ate all the sweeties I brought with me last time.”

  
“He will take advantage of your generosity, I’m afraid. You mustn’t let him so.” Beth said gently as Fritz picked up things here and there to ask her opinion. Beth, ever the expert in all things domestic, looked over everything with a sharp eye (and hid her blushing whenever she could behind cloth and foodstuffs.)

  
“Ah, but a little candy is nothing compared to your family’s kindness.” Fritz said as he paid for a shawl, “for your mother, the dear lady.”

  
“We missed sharing our kindness these last few days.” Beth said reproachfully, though she could not hide the affection in her voice. Fritz dared not guess that the feeling was for him, and so replied as apologetically as his broken English could.

  
“I am sorry, Miss March! I had much work to do to secure my boys’ future.”

  
“Oh, do tell me! Did you get the position?” Beth exclaimed over the little flower for Meg now topping the basket in her hands. She knew the professor had been looking for a place to teach, though he would not tell her where. Though the idea of him visiting less hurt her loving heart, she knew what a chance it would be for him and his.

  
“Yes, and I leave this week. My little ones shall never know want as long as I live.”

  
“You will still visit, please? I so look forward to our 'reviews,’ as Jo calls them.” Beth said and watched Fritz closely. She was satisfied that no hurt passed over his ruddy face at the mention of Jo. The young woman was surprised, however, to see a mingled look of joy and pain there instead.

  
“Once more will I come. Sadly, the college in the West.”

  
“But you can’t go so far!” Beth exclaimed, though her voice did not rise. Fritz smiled wider at Beth’s outburst, her proper upbringing and shy nature keeping anyone but him from noticing.

  
“I must for a while if I’m to set my boys right. I promise to write and–Why, Elizabet! Why do you cry, Darling Heart?” Fritz said in surprise and worry. Beth clung to the basket in her hands, full of their gifts for friends and family, and wept softly. Unlike her masculine sister, Beth knew the healing power of tears and let them wash away her sorrow.

  
“I don’t want you to go.”

  
“Ah, that is so good! Is this truth?” Fritz said in emerging joy. “I came to say goodbye to love, as you surely know. But you, little Handel, woke that music again in me. I have nothing but love to give to you. Is that enough?” Fritz finished his rambling declaration in an anxious look. Beth soothed his fear immediately by putting down the basket and taking his hands in her own.

  
“Dear old professor! I had hoped, when Jo wrote about you, that I’d have a new brother someday. But, I must confess, I prefer instead this way.” Beth laughed suddenly, with such joy that some about them looked and smiled at the happy couple, quiet as their way was. “And Jo! She’ll be so glad for us. So very glad.”

  
The look in Beth’s own eyes told how so very glad she was herself. Fritz grinned and took up the basket and then Beth’s arm again. The walk home was even more leisurely than the shopping, if that could be, as the new travelers began to map their adventures to come.

  
“Yes! Glad she will be, that Jo of ours!” Fritz said warmly, thrilling Beth’s heart with how he claimed Jo with her. “But will you be happy, knowing that she brought me here?” Fritz asked suddenly as they passed a speeding horse. He pulled Beth away in the unconscious manner that he had with her that pleased her caring heart–to be the one guarded and saved, for once.

  
“How could I ever be jealous of Jo? You couldn’t helping loving her, just as I can’t. She’ll always be a part of you, and that’s what makes your heart all the better for learning to love me after such a stunning beginning.” Beth said as they strolled.

  
“You are as stunning a finish, Darling Heart.” Fritz said with a adoring smile. As they walked, they continued to “review” their lives, now entwined by gentleness and warmth, in the beautiful winter sunshine.

**Author's Note:**

> I had originally planned to write a fanfiction for every possible, plausible pairing in Little Women. The idea fizzled, but I did manage to churn out at least one story. As Beth and Fritz are probably my favorite characters in the series, I was glad to pair them up while also freeing Jo (another favorite) to be the "literary spinster" that Louisa May Alcott intended.


End file.
